The staple food of the Japanese is rice, and they are obsessed with snow-white rice balls.
Rice balls, also known as onigiri, musubi, or nigiri-meshi, are Japanese foods made from white rice formed into round, triangular, or cylindrical shapes and often wrapped in nori (seaweed). They traditionally have sour or salty fillings such as umeboshi (pickled Chinese plum), salted salmon, katsuobushi (smoked and fermented bonito), kombu, tarako, or mentaiko (pollock roe), or takanazuke (pickled Japanese giant red mustard greens).
Rice balls are indispensable in Japan and are often eaten three times daily. Japanese people even eat dumplings and ramen in a small rice bowl, showing their deep love for rice. However, on the whole, Japanese people are thin and have a very low obesity rate. Seeing a Japanese person with a big belly on the street is rare. Why is that?
A study found that, although most Asian people generally go to carbohydrates as a staple food, there are specific differences. The Japanese people eat three meals of carbohydrates, but the obesity rate is still very low. there for three main reasons:
3 reasons Japan’s obesity rate is low in spite of eating rice balls
1. Cold rice balls have less starch
The main ingredient in carbonated water is starch. This material will continue to expand with the cooking process, the starch particles with the temperature, and the influence of water, resulting in the paste. When it’s hot, the starch is passed to a deeper degree and is more likely to break down into glucose, producing calories and increasing blood sugar.
However, Japanese people prefer cooler carbohydrates such as rice balls and sushi. When the rice is cooled, the starch particles crystallize and do not break down as easily, resisting the enzyme amylase. This term is “starch aging” or “resistant starch.”
2. Hard vs. soft rice
Hard rice is the soul of Japanese rice balls and sushi. This is also why the Japanese people eat carbohydrates but do not gain weight, a “top secret among top secrets. You can see that the Japanese brand-name rice cookers are all based on clear grains, sinewy grains, and transparent pearls. Cooking into soft rice is the most taboo thing for Japanese housewives.
This is where the principle of “starch paste” applies. When the starch particles are well pasted, they are more easily digested and absorbed, making this paste suitable for people who have recovered from serious illnesses or for breastfeeding babies.
Softly cooked rice porridge is easier to digest and assimilate than well-cooked rice, making it easier to get hungry. However, eating hard rice can slow down the digestion and absorption of carbohydrates after meals, thus maintaining a sense of fullness for longer.
3. Combing other ingredients cleverly
Although Japanese people like to eat carbohydrates in every meal, the amount of staple food allocated to each meal is minimal.
Breakfast consists mainly of congee, rice, or eggs. Convenience stores sell sandwiches, but the portions are relatively small. They consist primarily of two thin bread slices sandwiched with vegetables or fruit and then cut in half.
Most Japanese people bring their lunches, including rice, vegetables, fish, and fruit. The bento box size is small, and the rice is mostly just a small amount, but the proportion of vegetables is very high.
And dinner is mostly steamed food, miso soup, tea puffed rice, etc. Their dinners are similar to lunches, but much lighter. Eating light, with a balanced mix, the risk of obesity is naturally much lower.
Japanese people’s 5 habits make it easy to lose weight!
1. Activity
The University of Tokyo, Japan, University College of Medicine, Department of Diabetes. Metabolic internal medicine expert Aoyama Lunjiu once said that the Japanese dislike specialized sports, but their lives are not idle.
They don’t sit if they can stand, and they don’t stand if they can walk. As most Japanese living facilities are more concentrated, do not have to drive every day, and have easy access, many Japanese people like to walk or bike out, inadvertently getting exercise.
2. Light cuisine
Low fat, low salt, more steamed, and more raw food is the “essence” of the Japanese diet.
For example, steamed cabbage dipped in Japan’s unique seasoning sauce is a delicacy; salads consist of fresh vegetables sprinkled with only a little salt, a few drops of olive oil, and then sprinkled with sesame seeds. Simple is the key even if a “salad” is served at the table.
Japanese cuisine is also known as “water cuisine.” It generally uses less oil, salt, and seasoning. Its principle is to make various dietary materials to maintain the original flavor. Japanese housewives seldom fry or braise their food; instead, they steam it, mix it with cold water, or boil it in water.
Japanese people eat seafood, soy products, and vegetables that do not require a lot of oil for frying and braising, basically raw or mixed into a salad.
3. Seafood
Seafood is very abundant in Japan. From March to May every year, six-lined fish, squid, clams, rock bass, and herring become the “guests of honor” on the table of Japanese people; from June to August, abalone, eel, catfish, and black sea bream start to play a leading role; in autumn, eel, flounder, swordfish, and tuna are the focus; and in winter, codfish, mackerel, and tuna are the most delicious fish.
According to the Japanese newspaper Shin-Hwa, many places in Japan hold an autumn swordfish festival, and the scene of 10,000 people eating fish is nothing short of spectacular.
Data show that Japan’s annual per capita fish consumption has increased from more than 70 kilograms to more than 100 kilograms, even more than the consumption of rice, which is more than twice as much as the per capita fish consumption in France.
4. Tea
Japanese people like drinking tea, especially green tea and tea polyphenols. Tea helps digestion and metabolism. Tea contains polyphenols, aromatic oils, minerals, proteins, vitamins, and other nutrients. Light green tea is perfect for strengthening the heart and kidney function, promoting blood circulation, and helping digestion.
5. Homemade bento
Japan has a long history of bento culture; most people, whether office workers or students, will have a bento box for lunch. If you make your food, you will pay more attention to nutritional combinations and not add salt and oil as in a takeaway meal. Office workers who order a takeaway for a quick meal and don’t like to cook alone will easily gain weight in the long run, affecting their health.
Translated by Eva and edited by Amanda
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